madstone means A stone believed to have the power to heal the bite of a rabid or venomous animal. It carries an Arena rating of 1723, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, madstone ranks #662 of 13,218 for Most Vivid Words, #1,263 of 13,218 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,267 of 13,218 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,154 of 13,218 for Most Elegant Words.
madstone is pronounced /ˈmadstəʊn/.
Why “madstone” is a great word
A concretion, typically porous, historically applied to a wound with the belief it could draw out poison and cure the bite of a rabid or venomous animal. Its name is a plain American compound from the obsolete English sense of ‘mad’ (meaning rabid) and ‘stone’, first attested in 1834. Unlike a “bezoar”—a broader, Old World term for any animal-gastrointestinal concretion prized as a universal antidote—or an “amulet”—a general object worn for mystical protection—the madstone is a specific, applied folk instrument of cure. It is the cool, porous weight laid upon a frantic dog bite, the dark, hopeful stain left after hours of contact, the trembling hands trusting a rough pebble over the certain horror of hydrophobia—a testament to the human need for a tangible object to stand against an invisible, creeping terror.
Etymology
From mad + stone.
noun
- A stone believed to have the power to heal the bite of a rabid or venomous animal.“I gathered my things and asked the Negroes to return the scalps they'd stolen, along with my madstone.”
Words closest in meaning
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